Geothermal Energy

By: Jack, and Ching Ching

Geothermal energy is the alternative energy for the future and it is one of the best energy to replace Fossil Fuel. The name Geothermal energy means Earth heat. Geothermal energy might be one of the solutions to help the World.

How does it work?

How Geothermal energy is produced

Geothermal energy's core resource is the magma from the Earth's crust.
There are three methods of generating electricityfrom the magma.
The first step to generate geothermal energy is when cool water from the power plant is released to the Earth through a long hole that can reach up to 10 km. When the water
touches the magma, the magma heats up by releasing steam. The steam from the magma would be carried through another pipe to the power plant. Steam is carried to the turbines which makes the turbine spin. As the turbine spins it changes the heat energy to kinetic energy, the electricity is sometimes stored but most of the time the electricity is carried through substations or power lines. A disadvantage about this is that the electricity cannot travel very far since the power has limited amount of energy.

How widespread is it?

Geothermal energy is not very famous in the world right now. Only 0.416% of the world uses geothermal energy. About 21 countries uses Geothermal energy. A total of five continents have geothermal plants excluding South America and Antarctica. Geothermal energy can be found in Africa. Kenya has many plants and distribute its power to its neighboring countries such as Ethiopia, Djibouti, Tanzania, Eritrea, and Uganda. Many businessmen are planning to invest many other geothermal power plants in Rwanda and Ethiopia.

How efficient is it?

A geothermal plant sends out 35 to 2,000 gigawatt and a new plant can produce 15,000 MW within ten years. It is a hard job to build and create a plant. You will need a lot of drilling, lots of steal cost, metal cost, and the cost of labor force. The cost of a Geothermal plant depends on its size. A small plant can cost around $300-$5000, a medium sized plant can cost around $10-$20 million and a large Geothermal plant can cost around $50 million. It costs $3,4000 to install per KW.

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Advantages and Disadvantages

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Advantages:

Does not take up land to build power plants
cleaner
efficient and renewable
save up 80% costs over fossil fuel
can get directly to the house
almost limitless
sustainable
requires no fuel
use for many causes
save money
helps many animals in its habitat (fish, alligators)

Disadvantages:

high installation costs
can run out of steam
some sites may release dangerous gas
practical only in area near hot spots
produces waste water; which damages soi
can release green house gases
can lead to earthquake
not sustainable to all buildings

What is the role of Geothermal energy in the future?

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The idea of Geothermal energy is a bright idea for the future.
Although the use of Geothermal energy is not very popular right now, there is a very high chance of the popularity rising.
The use of Geothermal energy has a high chance of rising because in the future more scientists and skilled people will find more hotspots in the world that is consumable to create Geothermal energy. Also Geothermal energy is one of the energies that does the least damage to the Earth. Right now, not many people have the skill of spotting Geothermal locations or the skills of creating machines that will make Geothermal energy more efficient. The obvious point is that technology will improve greatly in the next 5 to 10 years which means that the machines and generators to make this energy popular and efficient will be created and used.